TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified in front of the U.S. Congress in an effort to convince lawmakers that the company will protect U.S. citizens' data.
The testimony lasted more than five hours.
U.S. legislators stated that privacy concerns regarding the use of TikTok by U.S. citizens have unified the Democratic and Republican representatives.
- When asked about the ties that the social media app has with the Chinese Communist Party, Chew stated that the app does not share data with the CCP.
- He added that the company doesn't ask employees about their party affiliations in China but added that the CEO of TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is not a member of the party.
- Chew was asked about Project Texas, a proposal that would see it store all data in the U.S. under Oracle's server technology.
- According to the company's CEO, all U.S. citizen data will be deleted from TikTok's servers by the end of 2023.
- Chew also mentioned the Cambridge Analytica scandal as an example of American companies not being entirely transparent with the data of U.S. citizens.
